Whispers
by notebookworm
Summary: Living in absolute silence would turn anyone to violence. When a mute girl with a tortured past becomes a shinigami for personal gain and needs to be taught that there's more to life than blood, is Squad Eleven going to be up for the job?
1. Healthy Competition

_This is my first story, so here goes nothing! Please note that this takes place years after the Winter War, so things have settled down a little. Reviews are always appreciated, flames are not. Thanks for reading!_

**Chapter 1**

**Healthy Competition**

"Excuse me?"

I was sitting under a tree at the Soul Reaper Academy. I looked up to see a little girl with pink hair behind me. She wasn't wearing the uniform of a student, but that of a Soul Reaper. I smiled and nodded.

"Your reiatsu seems impressive. I wanted to let you know that some of us Soul Reapers are going to be watching the students who are graduating this year in advanced swordsmanship in about an hour. Are you one of those people?"

I nodded again.

"Okay, then. I'll see you there!"

Most of the students were inside the canteen, eating. I didn't get along very well with the other students. That was probably because I didn't talk. It wasn't like I had no vocal chords, but I never spoke. I couldn't bring myself to make a noise. It also probably didn't help that I already had my zanpakuto and could perform shikai. I've had my zanpakuto for years, though, since before I joined the academy. The school made me leave it in the headmaster's office so that I didn't harm anyone. Because I already excelled in swordsmanship at the time of joining the academy, I had only been here for two years but was about to graduate. Most people thought I was a natural at kido and shunpo as well, but, as I had no voice to cast spells with, I had had to work five times as hard to garner those abilities. I may have looked the same age as the other students, but I had only been in Soul Society for fifteen years.

I stood up and began the walk to Swordsmanship. When I got there, all the other students were already warming up. The graduation would be taking place in two weeks, as soon as exit exams were over. People from the Soul Society had come in once last week to observe a Kido class. They talked to a few of the students, but not me.

As I went over to the bin to pick up a wooden sword, I noticed the headmaster speaking to some of the soul reapers. There were at least six captains there. I saw the little girl with the pink hair hanging on to the shoulder of one of them—he was the tallest man I had ever seen. The headmaster stepped over to the tall captain.

My jaw dropped when I noticed that he was holding my zanpakuto. I hadn't seen it in months! I dropped the wooden one and walked over to him immediately.

I tapped his shoulder.

"Hello there, Udai-san," he smiled genially. "I was just telling Captain Zaraki of Squad Eleven here about how you already know your zanpakuto's shikai. I believe your zanpakuto's name is Akuryo…Zeiga?"

Actually, it was Akuryo Seika (and she preferred to be known as just Seika), but that was close enough. I could hear her laughing at him. It sounded like a bell.

"So I guess you're pretty talented, huh," a bald guy said. He stood next to the captain.

I looked at the ground nervously. I had heard things about the eleventh squad, about how they were the blood thirstiest division in Seireitei. I didn't want to fight one of them.

"Here," the headmaster said, handing me my zanpakuto. "With all these captains around, I doubt you'll get away with hurting anybody. Make sure you're ready to start sparring in half an hour." He moved on to speak to the other captains.

I bowed. As I began to walk away to practice wielding Seika again, I heard the bald guy say, "She was pretty quiet."

I stopped and swayed on the spot.

"Go ask to watch her perform Shikai," Zaraki muttered, "I'm going to look for other recruits." I began walking, going to the far side of the room. Most of the other students were clustered around the middle, so there was no doubt I would harm anyone.

"Your name is Udai, right?"

I turned around to see the bald man and another person with purple hair standing next to him. I couldn't tell if the second one was a man or a woman.

I nodded.

"I am Ayasegawa Yumichika," the second one smiled. I decided he was a man.

"My name is Madarame Ikkaku, but you can just call me Ikkaku if you want," the bald man said.

I looked at the ground. It was so embarrassing that I couldn't explain to him that I just couldn't "call" him anything. I pulled a note card and gave it to Ikkaku. He read it aloud.

"My full name is Udai Kagami," he read. "My zanpakuto's name is Akuryo Seika. I aspire to be a Soul Reaper."

He looked at me, confused. I took a step toward him and turned over the card. It had three words on it.

"I am mute," Ikkaku said slowly.

"That makes sense!" Yumichika smiled. "That's why you don't make any sound when you walk! Okay, can we see your Shikai now?"

Ikkaku made a face at him.

I held up my sword and focused on Yumichika. _The command is "Sake,"_ Seika chimed from somewhere deep within the blade. In my mind, I shouted _Sake! Akuryo Seika!_

My sword, which looked like a regular katana, began to glow. It bent at the middle and split into four blades. I looked up at my spectators. They both looked very confused.

The blades began to grow and twist into vines that wrapped themselves around Yumichika. He looked absolutely terrified. Realizing that the vines were draining his reiatsu, I pulled them back and Seika returned to her original form.

Yumichika glared at me. I didn't understand why he could be mad at me…unless he didn't want Ikkaku to know what his shikai looked like. But if they were friends, Ikkaku had to know.

Ikkaku laughed. "Wow... that looked just like Ikkaku's for a minute! But it's not; I've never seen those vines before. That was pretty good, but unfortunately, Squad Eleven isn't exactly the place for a kido-type sword. So we'll be moving along now. Thanks, though."

As Ikkaku began to walk away, I saw Yumichika's expression of fear replaced with one of relief. But he understood Seika's power completely, and that was important. He pointed to Ikkaku and mouthed _'Use his' _before saying, "Wait, Ikkaku. She has something else to show us." Ikkaku turned around. It was obvious from his face that he expected nothing.

_The command is "Nobiro," _Seika said, now as nervous as me. _Nobiro! Akuryo Seika!_

Seika grew into a naginata. I panicked, realizing I had no idea how to wield a naginata. _Calm down,_ Seika sighed. _You don't need to attack. See what Ikkaku's reaction is._

I looked at Ikkaku, realizing that the blade was about two inches away from his face. I pulled the naginata back and drew my hand across the blade, returning Seika to a katana.

He looked at me, perplexed. "You're an interesting one, Kagami." They went back to the other side of the building. I began drilling your basic slashes and pierces.

After about ten minutes, the swordsmanship teacher walked in. He expected the students to come in half an hour before him to do last-minute practicing. The class gathered around him.

"Good afternoon, everyone," he said with the air of utmost seriousness. "We're going to try something different than sparring today. Everyone is going to be given a number on a slip of paper, and you will be forming a group with everyone else whom has that number. Each group is going to possess a baton. This isn't going to be over until one group has all the batons. Every team member is going have a bamboo sword, used to maim, not to kill. You may utilize the entire campus. Everyone understand? Please form a line."

As we jumped into a single file line, I wondered what good an exaggerated game of capture the flag would do to show off our abilities. If we were just going to split up and go to different parts of the school, wouldn't it just be impossible to watch?

The teacher handed me a slip. It had a messily scrawled ten on it. When he was finished passing them out, he asked us to find our group members. There was only one other person on my team. His name was Kuroda Kai, and he was nice enough. In our advanced class of forty-three people, he ranked tenth.

I went up to the teacher to grab a baton when the headmaster snatched my zanpakuto back. I ignored it, thinking about strategy.

The teacher added, "All of you have your bamboo swords from before, am I correct? All right. There are eleven teams, and please note that the number of people on each team is somewhat sporadic. The numbers range from two to six. When I say go, you will have ten minutes to strategize within your team. You are not allowed to attack any other teams during this period. In ten minutes, the school bell will ring and the official game will have begun. You are not allowed to use kido. Any questions?"

Kai raised his hand. "During these ten minutes, we can go out of this room?"

"Yes you can," the teacher nodded. An idea hit me like a brick. I took out a notebook and began writing it down. Kai was reading it over my hand. When I finished, I looked at him and waited for him to finish reading. He looked at me, smiling, and nodded.

"Is everyone ready? All right, the soul reapers and I are going to start heading over to the security room now. That is where you will find us. Go!"

Kai grabbed my hand and we shunpo-ed together—right into the security room. I opened a door to find an empty closet. We jumped in and closed the door. In a few minutes, the soul reapers entered the room. The bell sounded throughout the school.

"Excuse me, but I just noticed," the headmaster mused, "there are only ten teams running around on this camera."

"Maybe one team was already defeated."

By now you're probably wondering why it would be a good idea to go into the same room as all the captains. I know everyone on team one—the team with six people. It was just everyone else's luck, but they happened to be the boys that held the rankings of second through seventh in our grade (I hold the first ranking, of course). If we were to be running around, trying to get everyone else's batons by force would be a waste of time. But, by the time team one had gotten all other ten batons, they were going to be exhausted. And then they would run around, trying to find us. After a while, one of them would finally realize the one place they haven't looked, and they would come here to the security room, where Kai and I would be lying in wait. Kai would grab all of the batons and shunpo away to put them back in the sparring room, and then come back and help. He was the fastest person our class.

It was a perfectly good idea, but we hadn't accounted for all the time it would take for them to figure it out. An hour later, we were still sitting in this dumb closet, and I was drifting away...

I must have lost track of time, but Kai was suddenly tapping my foot urgently. I felt the baton still in my lap and handed it to him. There were footsteps outside the room, getting closer.

"But they've only got ten of the eleven batons," someone said.

We heard the door open. I could hear them panting, and I imagined them looking around, waiting to see where we were. In the shadows of the closet, Kai held up three fingers…then two…then one.

In unison, we jumped out of the closet. Kai, like me, could be silent when he wanted to. The door made no noise as it opened. Kai had taken all ten of their batons and was gone before any of them had time to react, and I had already hit one of them so hard across the head that he was lying on the ground unconscious. I heard a cheer that sounded like it came from the little girl with the pink hair.

Then I realized that having to face five people wasn't that much easier than facing six. While holding two of them back with my sword and kicking one of them away, I got two heavy blows to the stomach. I decided that there wasn't enough space in the security room and ran out into the hallway.

Kai was finally back, tripping one and then hitting him with a hard blow to the chest. I heard at least three ribs crack. Kai then picked said boy up and threw him down the stairs.

Meanwhile, I was fending off the other four. It was obvious that they were exhausted. I tried to copy Kai's tripping trick but ended up hitting the guy's feet. He was hopping up and down, making him an easy target for Kai. Kai did the same thing as he did to the last guy, and then there were only three left.

The tallest one of them called out, "I'll take this guy somewhere else. You handle the girl." He grabbed Kai's collar and flash stepped away, carrying him along.

Two on one isn't very fair. I was left trying to stab each of them but not even making contact, while they were landing every single blow. Finally, I got fed up with my approach and began to do long, sweeping slices from the side. I jumped up and hit one of their heads from the side, knocking him into the other guy. They hit the ground hard. I grabbed their bamboo swords and threw them behind me, out of reach. I then took my sword and held it across their necks, waiting until they had passed out from lack of oxygen.

There were bruises all over my body—something that I was used to. I stood up and tried to sense Kai's reiatsu. I began to walk toward it, when I felt a hand close around my throat, cutting off my circulation. One of the guys—the first one to fall—hadn't been knocked out. I grabbed at my throat, gasping.

He picked me up and walked, swaying, a few steps forward before he held me out at arm's length and then let go. I was falling—falling down to the ground floor. Ten stories down.


	2. Too Much to Hope For

**Chapter Two**

**Too Much to Hope For**

There was a breeze going through my hair. It felt like I was moving: forward, slightly down, slightly up and forward, slightly down...like I was on the back of someone who was moving. My head ached…probably from the fall. But I wasn't dead. I should have been killed, or at least seriously injured, after falling from such a height. What happened?

I opened my eyes. I was riding piggy-back on that captain back from before…I think his name was Zaraki. He was much scarier up close.

"Udai-san," came a voice. It was Kai. "We won! And we're both getting two hundred extra credit points on our final."

Now I remembered something...I had been blacking out while falling, and it was really hazy, but I think someone caught me before I hit the ground. It must have been Kai. I smiled at him, hopping off of Zaraki's back. The pink haired girl from before was riding on his other shoulder. Ikkaku and Yumichika from before were here too. I glanced around and realized we were in Seireitei.

"This is Captain Kenpachi Zaraki of the eleventh squad," Kai grinned. "This is his lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, and these are the third and fifth seats of the squad, Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika."

"We've met," Zaraki grunted.

"All of the students from our class are getting tours of Seireitei right now," Kai added. "Except for a few that were too badly injured to be walking around."

I nodded at him, looking around. It was just a bunch of buildings, all the same color, with the same style roof. We kept walking while they commented on the events from earlier in the day.

"It was interesting how we couldn't even sense your spiritual pressures," Yumichika hummed. "I was really surprised when you guys finally popped out."

"Are you kidding?" Ikkaku groaned. "Where else could they have been?"

"I don't know," Yumichika whined.

"The captain of the eighth squad talked to me once it was finished," Kai muttered to me. "He said he would like to have me in that division."

Kenpachi suddenly stopped walking. "That reminds me…"

He turned around, more menacing than ever. I couldn't call this feeling fear, but some kind of reason that was telling me to act cautiously.

"How would you like to be on the Eleventh Division?"

My jaw dropped.

"It's not exactly her decision, Captain," Yumichika sighed.

"Look, Udai, when you charged out and began to take on all those guys—who were twice the size of you—by yourself, it was the kind of guts that we pride ourselves on in the eleventh division," he grinned wildly. "And from what these two have told me, you've got a pretty flexible zanpakuto. So we're interested. What do you say? I could place a request."

I couldn't believe it. I usually wouldn't have a choice in the first place, and now I had a captain telling me he was interested in having me be his subordinate.

I looked at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact.

"…So?" It was Yumichika, crouching in front of me, smiling widely. "Whaddya say?"

I didn't want to make a decision right now. I shrugged. I zoned out, thinking back to the fight earlier. If Kai had caught me, why had I been unconscious for such a long time? I heard a small chime of laughter deep within my thoughts. Seika...she must have forced me to pass out. _Why would you do that?_ I asked her. _I was just trying to protect you!_ she whined. _What made you think that blacking out would protect me?_ She didn't answer.

"Well, here we are," said Kenpachi. I looked up. We had reached a large building…or group of buildings. There was a large kanji eleven above the door. We went inside. There was a large open space, where soul reapers were sitting around a rectangular field, watching two soul reapers spar. The two in the middle were skillful, violent fighters. I was slightly intimidated.

"Captain!" said one of the men sitting in the circle. I looked around, realizing that all of the soul reapers in the building were men. A few of them were eyeing my chest—not that there was much to look at anyway.

"Fresh meat!"

I looked at Kai. He was trying to stay cool, but he was obviously panicking.

"Are they any good?" someone asked.

"We're interested in this one," Kenpachi said, looking at me. I flushed.

"Can we see her fight?"

I covered my face with my hands. I should have known—Eleventh division was known for loving combat, picking a fight over food. I didn't want to fight these people! They were all terrifying. The level of reiatsu emanating from the room wasn't overwhelming, but it made me very uncomfortable.

"Sure," Kenpachi shrugged, pushing me forward. I realized that he wasn't even going to ask me.

Someone threw me a wooden katana. If my opponent was using one as well, I probably wouldn't die. And if I used Hakuda while focusing my reiatsu, I could even scrape by with a win. …I was being too hopeful.

"So who wants to fight her?" Yachiru asked.

"Oh, I will!" Yumichika raised his hand. "Please?"

The fifth seat of the squad? He was probably still angry for using his shikai earlier. I was screwed.

"Go ahead," Kenpachi scowled. "Try to make this interesting, you two. But so you don't kill her, we're going to give you a one minute timer…sound okay?"

We nodded. Yumichika grabbed another wooden katana. The two men that had been sparring before backed out and sat down. Yumichika and I took their places.

Staring at a clock on the wall, Yachiru shouted, "Go!"

I waited for him to move.

"I just wanted to let you know," he smirked, "I don't often face my opponents with my eyes open."

I looked at him, bewildered. He ran forward, slashing. I blocked his sword.

"You're so beautiful I could stare at you for hours," he added. Was he trying to distract me?

I leaned back and kicked him in the face, focusing my reiatsu to my foot. He was able to protect his face with his hands, but slid a few meters back.

"She's not too shabby," said a man from the crowd.

I ran forward again, swinging the wooden sword down in hopes of hitting his head. He stepped out of the way and hit me from the side. Before he could step back again, I grabbed the sword and tried to kick him again. He caught my foot, however. I took my sword and put the point on the ground, and using it like a cane, kicked him in the face with my other foot. He glared at me and kicked me in the chest, pushing me back several feet.

I gripped my sword, wondering if he was leaving any openings. He ran toward me, his sword pointed forward, ready to pierce. I smiled, grabbing the tip of his sword and giving it a jerk. He flew in an arc over me, hitting the ground headfirst. Some of the audience laughed.

Still on the ground, he swung his sword, knocking my feet out from under me. I crashed to the ground. Next thing I knew, he was standing over me with one foot on my throat. I tried to push him away to no avail. I had absolutely no leverage on my side. Slowly, my vision started to fade, and my grip loosened. The wooden katana fell to the ground.

"Time's up!" Yachiru chirped. Yumichika stepped back, smirking. I jumped up, smiled, and shook his hand.

"Um, Udai-san," Kai called. "We need to get back to the academy. Like, now."

I went over to him, bowed to the eleventh division, and left with Kai. We flash stepped back to the academy. I returned to my dormitory to find that all things I had brought into swordsmanship today had been returned there.

I collapsed on my futon, not even bothering to change out of my uniform. I hadn't had any hope to beat Yumichika in the first place, so why did I get so into the fight? And the fact was, he was just toying with me for the first part of the match and was able to completely reverse our positions when I flipped him on to the ground. I really_ was_ hopeless. I could just do my best to hope that Captain Zaraki hadn't lost interest...

Graduation exams were next week. Ugh…


End file.
